Marijuana legalization raises key questions

SEATTLE -- People openly lit joints under the Space Needle as marijuana possession became legal under state law Thursday, the day a measure approved by voters to regulate marijuana like alcohol took effect.

It prompted midnight celebrations from pot activists who say the war on drugs has failed.

But as the dawn of legalization arrives, Washington and Colorado, where a similar law passed last month, now face complicated dilemmas: How do you go about creating a functioning legal-weed market? How do you ensure adults the freedom to use pot, while keeping it away from teenagers?

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And will the Justice Department just stand by while the states issue licenses to the growers, processors and sellers of a substance that, under federal law, remains illegal?

"We're building this from the ground all the way up," said Brian Smith, spokesman for the Washington Liquor Control Board, which is charged with regulating the drug. "The initiative didn't just wave a magic wand and make everybody here an expert on marijuana."

The measures approved on Nov. 6 have two main facets. First, they OK the possession of up to an ounce of marijuana by adults over 21. That took effect Thursday in Washington, though it remains illegal -- for now -- to buy and sell pot.

In Colorado, where pot fans will also be able to grow their own plants, the law takes effect by Jan. 5.

The other part of the measures, the regulatory schemes, are trickier. Washington's Liquor Control Board, which has been regulating alcohol for 78 years, has a year to adopt rules for the industry: How many growers, processors and stores should there be in each county? Should there be limits on potency? How should the pot be inspected, packaged and labeled?

To help answer those questions, officials will turn to experts in the field -- including police, public policy experts and some of the state's many purveyors of medical marijuana.

With legalization, officials need to look at measures successful in reducing teen drinking, said Derek Franklin, president of the Washington Association for Substance Abuse and Violence Prevention. That includes education about the risks of pot and driving while stoned.

"We're really going to need to get all hands on deck to sort through this," he said.

The marijuana will be taxed heavily, with revenues possibly reaching hundreds of millions of dollars a year for schools, health care, government services and drug prevention.

Unless, of course, the Justice Department has something to say about it.

Whether a state can regulate an illegal substance is another question. Many constitutional law scholars say the answer is no: Washington and Colorado's regulatory schemes obviously conflict with marijuana's prohibition in the federal Controlled Substances Act, and when state and federal laws conflict, the feds win out, they say.

So the Justice Department could likely sue to block the regulatory schemes. But will it?